While the recent recession battered balance sheets in almost every business sector in the US and abroad, there were a few industries that saw expansion. One of these growth industries has been the $400 million global access control credential market, which benefited from increased concerns over theft, break-ins and white collar crime.

Smart cards and near field communications are driving the growth of access control technology, according to a study last year by IMS Research, with smart cards capturing 40 percent of the market.

Smart cards not only control physical and logical access, but provide enterprise-level savings compared to password-based systems, which were found to be problematic in 62 percent of enterprises, according to a study by Datamonitor. The study found enterprises spent an average of 40 man hours per week resolving password issues, and concluded that a 2000-user company could save $3.4 million over three years through the deployment of smart cards.

According to Security Sales & Integration magazine’s 2014 Gold Book, larger access control integrators are installing an average of 156 systems a year, compared to 120 four years ago. Plastek Cards partners with these integrators on a variety of smart card applications, and provides ongoing smart card manufacturing services to end users.